Thursday, June 15, 2017

Yonpachi Gyojo at UE Square

When the darling friends sent photos of their date night 1500km away at their friends' restaurant Outlaw Creative Cuisine, complete with local craft beer and dessert of chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice-cream topped with passion-fruit seeds, we were so envious. They told us to visit soon because the list of 'new restaurants to try' is filling up quickly. There was only one thing to do- we sent back photos of our dinner on the same night, which we knew they'd love to part-take. Ha!

Reciprocated with photos and one short video of our dinner at Yonpachi Gyojo at UE Square (next to Coffee Bar K, facing Orihara Shoten and Fraser Place). This Singapore outlet opened last November and we've been popping in rather often for dinners. It's a very convenient spot for us and the friends too. We love their food. This is an izakaya that serves up mainly seafood. There's some sort of chicken teriyaki or chicken-something items on the menu, but almost like it's an afterthought. Skip the fried items, not the best things here. Also, do not order the fish as sashimi or sushi. Well, at least I'm not impressed. The fish is fresh of course, but man, the knife skills are not there, and their sushi rice is horrendous.

Come for the fresh whole fish grilled or steamed or braised, and for their superb kaisen bijin nabewhich uses chicken and fish collagen in its stock. I understand the original Tsukada Nojo restaurantsuse pure chicken collagen for their stock, which is frankly quite a turn-off for me. I've no interest in chicken, chicken soup or chicken stock anything. This collagen hotpot thing. Tasty, yes, but I dunno about the effects of collagen. It's just bioavailability and its ratios, and ineffectual absorption when it isn't via intravenous drip. Anyway, that's just what I feel towards supplements in general. The point is, whatever they plonked into the stock, turn out to be pretty tasty.

I love the dipped noodle with shrimp stock. Decent noodles, but the star is that rich shrimp dip. It's seriously awesome. I pounced on this particular Niigata sake in the form of Hakkaisan Echigodesoro, which isn't offered by the bottle, but by the glass. It's seasonal, and not easy to find. I'll order that as long as it's on the menu. Fresh and bold, drunk cold, it's absolutely gorgeous.

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Notion

“A large, but not particularly impressive, book. Other books in the University's libraries had covers inlaid with rare jewels and fascinating wood, or bound with dragon skin. This one was just a rather tatty leather. It looked the sort of book described in library catalogues as 'slightly foxed', although it would be more honest to admit that it looked as though it had been badgered, wolved and possibly beared as well.
Metal clasps held it shut. They weren't decorated, they were just very heavy – like the chain, which didn't so much attach the book to the lectern as tether it.
They looked like the work of someone who had a pretty definite aim in mind, and who had spent most of his life making training harness for elephants.” ~ The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett